The organizer of the annual Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show in Harrisburg apparently is banning so-called assault weapons from this year's show.

Reed Exhibitions has informed some exhibitors — including Kinsey's Outdoors in Mount Joy and The Sportsman's Shop in New Holland, representatives of both stores said — that AR-style rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines capable of holding 30 rounds or more may not be sold or even displayed at the show scheduled for Feb. 2-10 at the State Farm Show Complex on Cameron Street.

Two Reed Exhibitions officials confirmed the ban this week, but both declined to elaborate.

A reporter's calls to a company office in Connecticut were not returned Tuesday.

Alex Cameron, general manager of Kinsey's, said he was told the ban was due to the "current political climate."

Gun control — particularly as it pertains to so-called assault weapons — has been a hot-button issue across the country ever since 20 children and six adults were shot and killed Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., by a man wielding an AR-15, semiautomatic rifle, fitted with a high-capacity magazine.

Joe Keffer, owner of The Sportsman's Shop, said he and others in the firearms industry are in "ongoing negotiations" with Reed Exhibitions to try to reverse the ban planned for the Harrisburg show.

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Reed calls the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show in Harrisburg "the largest outdoor, hunting and fishing event" in North America.

The company always has kept attendance figures confidential, but exhibitors have estimated the show attracts as many as 1 million people.

Ironically, Reed Exhibitions is the organizer for the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, which opened Tuesday and runs through Friday.

Sponsored by The National Shooting Sports Foundation, SHOT is billed as "the largest and most comprehensive trade show for all professionals involved with the shooting sports, hunting and law enforcement industries."

Its list of exhibitors includes all the major firearms manufacturers — including those that make AR-style rifles.

Cameron and Keffer are both attending as industry professionals.

Both said Reed has no gun ban at SHOT.

Back in November, Reed issued a press release announcing this year's Eastern Sports and Outdoor

Show would feature a brand-new section dedicated to "tactical guns and accessories."

No such area appears on the show's current, online floor plan.

Cameron and Keffer both said they were stunned when told of the planned ban for the Harrisburg show.

"It caught me totally off guard," Keffer said.

Reed representatives approached Kinsey's two years ago, according to Cameron, and asked the company to increase its presence as a firearms retailer at the Harrisburg show.

Kinsey's is primarily known as an archery distributor.

So Kinsey's the past two years maintained three booths at the Harrisburg show — one dedicated to archery, one dedicated to the sale of Hunter's Specialties game calls and other products, and one where guns could be bought.

Kinsey's sold a lot of guns at those shows, Cameron said, and many of them were AR-style rifles.

"We had them there because our customers wanted them," he said. "We planned to have them there again this year."

If Reed's planned gun ban remains in effect, Cameron said Kinsey's could pull its gun booth from the show.

"I think we would have to consider all options," he said. "Kinsey's has always supported any right the Second Amendment affords."

Cameron said that when he asked Reed officials to clarify their justification for the ban, he was told the primary focus of the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show has always been hunting, and that AR-style guns don't fit in with that.

"There's a booth that's always across from us at the show that sells all kinds of knives and Samurai swords," Cameron said. "I've shot coyotes in Missouri with my AR, but I've never gutted a deer with a Samurai sword."

In the March 2013 issue of Deer & Deer Hunting magazine on newsstands now, there's a feature article titled, "ARs: Here to Stay and Getting Better."

The article's subtitle states, "Modern sporting rifles are growing in popularity among deer hunters as technology improves."

Currently, semiautomatic rifles of all types are not allowed for hunting in Pennsylvania.

But they are allowed in many other states.

Keffer said he is "offended" by Reed's planned gun ban, but he said he does not plan to pull out of the upcoming show.

And he said he plans to work tirelessly over the next week to get the ban reversed.

"I'm not giving up," he said. "I still think we can get this fixed."

preilly@lnpnews.com